Behind the Stage of Freddy Fazbears' Pizza (Kylie Liefer)
Introduction ''"Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life.” - Five Nights at Freddy's'' Authorial Intention Scott Cawthon Scott Cawthon is the developer and creator of the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' Franchise. He was not a well-known developer before these games were discovered, despite having made many other games. Cawthon grew in popularity as many youtube gamers played in terror through the first ''Five Nights at Freddy’s''. Some fans of these youtubers became fans of the game as well, and ended up buying the game for themselves. Shortly after, ''Five Nights at Freddy’s 2'' went into creation. Games one through three of the series follow the idea that the player is a night guard at different locations of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and the animatronics at the different locations are sentient beings that want to put the player in an animatronic suit. The player must survive five nights working at the pizzeria in order to win, managing their power to close doors on animatronics, flash lights in their faces, and keep the animatronics out of the vents. The fourth installation is from the perspective of a child at nighttime, who has constant waking nightmares of the animatronics and must protect himself from them. There is also Five Night’s At Freddy’s: SIster Location, which takes place at Circus Baby's Pizza World, a similar pizzaria with different versions of the characters that ''Five Nights at Freddy’s'' fans love, as well as some new ones. Easter Eggs Cawthon has implemented many easter eggs, hidden features or messages, throughout the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. From messages on the wall, to unlockable minigames. Here are several that he’s included in the installments: ''Five Nights At Freddy's'' In the first game, on different nights players can see clippings on the wall that imply a dark story of children being murdered and having their bodies stuffed inside the animatronic suits. Knowledge Communities Because of all the small elements that Cawthon implements in his games, the ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' fan base works together to figure out the meaning of everything Scott Cawthon puts into his games. This group is lead by Matthew Patrick, a youtube creator that is the owner of the channel “TheGameTheorists”, in which he picks apart video games and theorizes about them using in-game clues as well as science. For his ''Five Nights at Freddy's'', Patrick will do a lot of research after each game’s release: playing the game multiple times on his own, analysing Cawthon’s posts on steam and reddit, looking at the trailers for the games as well as their websites, and looking at others’ theories that they have posted online. This is why, for the most part, fans will accept Patrick’s theory to be the most accurate of all the theories, because of the research he does in the games and online on others’ theories. There times when fans will notice that a theory Patrick has made is wrong. Fans, and sometimes even Cawthon himself, will then point out his mistake. In these theory videos, Patrick usually presents a timeline that has been developed from the different games that has been released, fixing based off of what was learned in the newest installment. This timeline is developed through his own findings in the game, as well as what he has learned from others’ findings online. In the video to the right, Patrick discusses the fan base and how quickly theories were beginning. https://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/2xy318/complete_trilogy_lore_summary/ He shows a theory that was made one March 4, 2015, only two days after the game’s release. This theory contains a lot of the same ideas that Patrick presents in his video, with some build off of his own findings. Without the online communities posting theories, Patrick may have come to a different conclusion on his meaning of the games, or perhaps would not even have any interest in these games at all. Not only do online communities help to figure out the lore of the game, but they also help to find the things in the game that provide hints to the lore. In the aforementioned video, Patrick also says that the fans online were able to help him figure out where to enter a code given in the game. This code leads players to a minigame that has to be played to get the “good ending” of the third installment of the game. There are multiple different mini games throughout this game that, when all are played, allow players to get this ending.All of these minigames are found by clicking on specific things on each of the five nights. Players cannot do everything on one night, and can only access certain minigames in specific ways. For example, to get into the first two minigames on night one, the player must click on a Balloon boy poster in the hallway to access the balloon boy minigame, and the puppet poster in a different hallway to access the puppet minigame. These two minigames have to be played on the same night, and if they are not the player will not get the good ending. With so many different requirements, this clearly was meant to be a team effort. People would get onto forums (mainly on reddit or steam) to share their findings. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=407774316 Disputes Question of Intention One of the popular questions of the ''Five Nights at Freddy’s'' fanbase is whether or not Scott initially intended for the games to have as much lore as there is now. One forum on the steam community page has several people who discuss this. Gocrusaders143 says, “I don't think he had the full story when he made the first game, but I think when he made the second game he did intend to make the third game.” Because of the sudden popularity of the first game, people believe that Scott wanted to dwell in his new relevance and expand on the universe that was introduced in this game. Doctor Bonnie Gaming 2 disagrees, saying “I think he knows the story.” Other fans believe that Scott new where was going with the games from the very beginning. Some assume this because even in the first game he had easter eggs that explained the lore of the game. One of these easter eggs was golden freddy, a rare occurrence character who could not be avoided. When he appeared in the game, he would simply appear hunched over in your office, then jumpscare you before crashing the game. In later games, people realize that Golden Freddy is important to the lore of the game, making players believe Scott had planned it all along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48JDYso8wlk Regrets It seems to some that Scott regrets what he has made. He has created a book series that he says is a separate canon than the games, but then it is very similar to the story told within the games. He also created ''Five Nights at Freddy’s World'', a game that is also considered to be outside the game franchise canon, with an ending that states some annoyance with his fans. To get this ending, the player must play through the game in hard mode. After the player has beaten the game, they are confronted with Animdude, the online representation of Scott Cawthon. This character scolds the player for playing the game. “So it’s your fault for my misery,” Animdude says. “It’s never enough for you people. Don’t you get it? I can’t do this anymore! I won’t…” After defeating Animdude, the game is over, and Animdude confronts the player once again. “...Was this the ending you wanted? Coming all the way here just to kill me? Was I really the villian you had in mind…” The game was removed from Steam on January 25, 2016, a mere four days after it’s release. Scott claimed it was because of its bad reviews, but a game with this kind of criticism at the player created the question as to whether or not Cawthon felt he overshared in this situation. Another large question of the community is what is the lore behind these games? People can agree on some things: that there are dead children living inside the animatronics. References